Geology of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary | Hacker News Reader

Geology of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary

pubs.usgs.gov

52 pointsgreesil15 comments

The FA doesn't mention the USS Independence by name but it was a WWII aircraft carrier sunk in the Gulf of the Farallones in 1951. It had been at Bikini Atoll during atomic tests.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Independence_(CVL-22)

A good book on the Farallones (the only book?) is The Devil's Teeth, Susan Casey.

A few fun facts. The Farallones are an archipelago, but South Farallones is the largest and only habitable island. It supported a small town when it was an egg source for San Francisco. Legally, the Farallones are part of San Francisco.

You can often see the Farallones from San Francisco on a relatively clear day at sunset. They're due west of SF and if you walk out in the street on say Balboa (or one of the alphabetical streets) and look out, you'll see them. A little elevation helps and it's easier later in the day. Point Reyes as well, if it's clear. They're harder to see from sea level at Ocean Beach because of the curvature of the earth. Line of sight in miles is 1.23 sqrt(height in feet), or about 3 miles for someone 6' tall. So at 30 miles away, you're not seeing much of the Farallones at sea level.

There are OYRA crewed and SSS singlehanded sailing races starting+finishing at the St Francis Yacht Club which round South Farallones. These start in the morning maybe 8am and finish in the evening, maybe 12+ hours. The wind usually picks up in the evening which is both good (get home faster) and difficult (broaching in the swirls of the south tower of the Golden Gate Bridge (the South Tower Demon) is common).

https://jibeset.net/racedoc/JACKY/T004394200/si.pdf

The Farallones are a seabird rookery. Lots of birds. Lots of shit and the Farallones are upwind. So you can smell the Farallones well before you get there.

The Farallones are a protected area. You can't land on them without a permit. The best way to qualify is to volunteer for the Farallones Patrol which delivers people+stuff and takes people+garbage. Then you tie up to a mooring buoy and get a tender from the island. Then you get a docent tour of the island.

People have swum which is insane since it's a great white shark feeding area.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farallon_Islands

That atomic test is the reason Hunters Point is radioactive. If they were just going to sink the boats why did the spray them off first? Ugh. I wish there was accountability but all involved are long dead now.

For us non-Californians:

    Gulf of the Farallones is home to major shipping lines to the 
    Port of San Francisco, Port of Oakland, and Port of Richmond

The Farallones are a group of islands about ~27 miles, pretty much due west of the Golden Gate Bridge. They're not huge but you can see them with the naked eye from the top of Mt Diablo about 50 miles away. There's a scientific research station on the largest one but due to their rocky coast (and environmental law) they're difficult or impossible to visit by boat.

You can see them with the naked eye from most of the bay area coast, weather/smog permitting. My favorite is Point Reyes.

Also, part of the City and County of San Francisco!

I doubt this adds anything to the discussion, but the first thing that popped into my head was that this is -great- backstory for a Godzilla movie.

Also where Jim Gray was sailing too when he went missing. His yacht has never been found.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Gray_(computer_scientist)

that's cool we also have a few thousand drums of DDT off LA's shores. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_ocean_dumps_off_Southern...

This all comes from an era where the prevailing thought was the solution for pollution is dilution.

Hey my dad used to wipe the stuff of tomatoes before eating them right off the vine.

I’m mostly ok, have the normal number of arms and legs. Only had one tumor, and just a few endocrine issues. Nothing major, it’s all good.

The Farallones always make me think of the Farallon brand of modems.

This is a fine submission, but if you want to say what you think is important about an article, please do it by adding a comment to the thread. Then your view will be on a level playing field with everyone else's: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...

(Submitted title was "50,000 drums of radioactive wastes were dumped near the Farallones, 1946 to 1970")

there are other areas where munitions were dumped, and somewhere off SF is a dumping area full of DDT and chemical wastes in drums, lots of it. one thing is certain, in that far future humans will be able to date goelogical strata of our era with great precision

In many places, containers with all kinds of pollutants were dumped into the ocean until the 1990s or 2000s; it may even still be practiced in countries with a similar level of development. Containers were also dumped in Somalia after the pirates attacked. There are Greenpeace videos from the 1990s trying to prevent radioactive dumping at sea. The remains of World War II also inhabit the seabed. And many other things.

I just hope that clouds of radioactive iodine don't cross my skies, or something much worse.

Fingers crossed.

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